Page 92 - NZ Hereford Magazine 2023

Top photo: Lisa Nolan rides her horse Sandy, with Sara Raleigh
leading Monty, following the Herefords along the Arawhata
Valley. Above photo: Huntaway Moss taking a break on the
Ben Doubleday’s favourite photo of a Bluestone Hereford Stud sire. Arawhata River bank. Both photos captured by Vicky O’Connor.

“One of my fond memories as a kid was to go to the local Ignoring, of course, the snoring, the chafing, and the
secondhand bookstore and find all the old New Zealand stinking wet socks!
Hereford year books. Nowadays, I have a nice collection of Vicky made a special mention of the hardworking horses
these books, along with other major stud collections, which and her respect for the faithful working dogs that could
are always a treat to look through and see all the great be seen in almost every image firmly at their boss’s side.
photography from back in the day. Stud stock photography is “Up to 11 times a day, launching themselves into a cold and
an important record of stud stock developments and I’m glad swift river without even being asked as a testament to the
to be creating photographic images for future reference.” stuff they are made of. They take on cattle with sometimes
Last year agriculture photographer Vicky O’Connor was courageous folly.”
included on two of South Westland’s most remote cattle Amanda King also enjoys turning her photography
musters with the Nolan and Landreth families. The Nolans into art. It was the desire to have a big Highland cattle
have been farming Hereford cattle in the challenging beast photo on her wall that spurred the former family
Arawhata Valley in South Westland for many generations. The photographer into snapping bulls, bison and sheep. Her
Landreths took over Kerry Nolan’s blocks and cattle 18 years friends liked the pictures so much, they asked her to do the
ago; they’re now run by Courtney Landreth. same for them. She started a Facebook page and by 2018, her
This magazine story has a selection of Vicky’s photos business By the Horns was a full-time job. In 2019, she won
relating to Herefords, but her words about ‘hut time’ on the the emerging business category in the NZI Rural Women
annual autumn Arawhata Valley muster also prompt the New Zealand Business Awards.
imagination. Her work is inspired by the subjects she encounters in the
“…the smell of the open fires, candles burning, no power, paddocks of the Canterbury farm where she lives, or are only a
the fresh cold water coming out of the taps (sometimes along short drive away, such as the stud bulls at Okawa Herefords.
with the rust and other debris from the header tank that we The results in turn create striking, limited-edition prints that
don’t talk about), the yarns told, the names scratched on hang on walls everywhere from New Zealand and Australia to
the walls, the huge night skies filled with stars, the bird calls the UK and Europe.
during the night, the really good billy tea, the odd beer and Amanda has also joined the coffee table team with a stunning
rum to warm you up or cool you down, the rustle of sleeping photographic book, published in 2022 by Penguin Books New
bags, bacon and eggs for breakfast (usually with burnt toast), Zealand, called A Load of Bull.
the card games or solitaire, the long drops with the best views A visit to any library will reveal dozens of books with
in the world, the babble of the rivers, the wind through the tin, Herefords in them.
but most of all for me… it was the quiet and the still of the Many a high country station or farming family has
night that at the same time was full of life and wonder.” been profiled and had its story told – and its Herefords

90 HEREFORD MAGAZINE Year 2023